JD Albert and Keith S. Karn, PhD, in PDMA's Book, "Design Thinking"

Bresslergroup’s Director of Engineering, JD Albert, and Keith S. Karn, PhD, Director of User Research and Human Factors, have each contributed a chapter to the book, Design Thinking: New Product Development Essentials from the PDMA, coming out from Wiley-Blackwell on November 2nd.

Design Thinking is the second in the Product Development and Management Association’s New Product Development Essentials series. It shows “how to develop a more systematic, human-centered, results-oriented thought process to bridge the gap between the strategic importance of design and the tactical approach of design thinking.”

Karn’s chapter, “Face and Interface: Richer Product Experiences Through Integrated User Interface and Industrial Design,” suggests methods for teams seeking to integrate hardware and software development by developing user interfaces and industrial design in parallel. He provides seven questions for integrated teams to ask themselves along the way, to help provide some structure and direction to what can sometimes feel like a meandering path. Karn also surveys emerging UI technologies that are providing designers with opportunities to expand products beyond the limits of physical controls and screens.

In “The Role of Design in Early-Stage Ventures: How to Help Start-ups Understand and Apply Design Processes to New Product Development,” Albert addresses an emerging entrepreneurial culture, both independent of and inside of corporations (e.g., “intrapreneurs”). Albert uses his experience as a former entrepreneur and as a consultant working with start-ups, to outline best practices for using design thinking to help early-stage ventures understand and succeed at product design and development.

Design Thinking: New Product Development Essentials from the PDMA will be out November 2nd.